Pascale Petit

Pascale Petit is a French-born British poet well known for her evocative work, which draws heavily on nature, trauma, and personal experience. Known for poetry collections such as Mama Amazonica (2017) and Tiger Girl (2020), Petit was awarded the RSL Ondaatje Prize in 2018 and the inaugural Laurel Prize for Poetry in 2020.

Her most recent novel, My Hummingbird Father (2024), marks her transition from poetry to prose, focusing on family reconciliation and healing through lyrical language.

Born in Paris, Petit spent her early years between France and Wales. Her multicultural background, which includes French, Welsh and Indian heritage, has profoundly influenced her poetic voice. Originally trained as a sculptor at the Royal College of Art, Petit worked as a visual artist before turning to poetry.

"Art was my first language, but poetry soon became the way I could speak," she said.

Petit's writing career began in 1994 with the pamphlet Icefall. Her second collection, The Zoo Father (2001), gained wider recognition. Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, it explored her complex relationship with her parents, a recurring theme in her work.

"I have always written from a place of personal and inherited trauma. Poetry is a way of making sense of it all," Petit said in an interview. The Zoo Father was followed by several other acclaimed collections, including What the Water Gave Me: Poems after Frida Kahlo (2010), a tribute to the Mexican painter's resilience.

In 2017, Petit's Mama Amazonica won the prestigious RSL Ondaatje Prize. The collection, deeply inspired by her travels in the Peruvian Amazon, focuses on ecological fragility and mental illness. Her voice has been described as powerful, mythic and raw. Les Murray remarked: "No other British poet I know of can match Pascale Petit's powerful mythic imagination".

She has had translations into Spanish/Mexican, Chinese, French and Serbian.

Petit's transition to prose with My Hummingbird Father (2024) continues to explore personal and familial themes, interweaving past traumas with a spiritual journey. The novel follows Dominique, a Parisian artist, as she reconciles with her dying father and uncovers buried truths about her family's history. The narrative also includes Dominique's travels to the Venezuelan Amazon, where she experiences transformative love.

Pascale Petit currently lives in Cornwall.

Photo credit: www.pascalepetit.blogspot.com